Cyclist nearing end of solo, 12,000-mile trip

Bob Lee, 70, of Barrington, Illinois, pedals through Soquel on Tuesday as he heads to the Mexican border to complete his 12,000 mile bike ride around the perimeter of the contiguous United States to raise money for hospice, cancer and ALS. (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)

SCOTTS VALLEY -- A 70-year-old cancer survivor is on the final stretch of a 12,000-mile charity bicycle ride that's been more than a decade in the making.

Bob Lee, a Barrington, Ill., native, has been on the road since Sept. 6, when he took off from Vancouver, British Columbia, en route to the southern U.S. border.

Though he's mostly traveling solo, Lee's son, Scott, joined him for a spell, riding with him through Humboldt and Mendocino counties.

"I think I have seen more of his butt these last few days than even when he needed his diapers changed," Lee notes in his ongoing blog.

He left Monday from Pescadero and rolled through Santa Cruz on Tuesday on his way to Moss Landing, where he plans to spend the night before again hitting the road. By the end of the month, he expects to arrive at the U.S. border, completing a 12,000-mile, solo ride around the perimeter of the country.

But the size of that perimeter made it necessary to break the trip into three legs. In 2001, Lee covered the roughly 3,300 miles from San Diego to Jacksonville, Fla., raising $86,000 along the way. Then in 2007, he racked up another 6,500 miles, and $390,000, by cycling from Jacksonville up the East Coast to Bar Harbor, Maine, then west to Vancouver along the Canadian border.

Lee is himself a survivor, having been diagnosed in 2003 with colon cancer, and his wife was later diagnosed with breast cancer. But "that's not really why I ride," he said Monday. "It's because every family has been touched by cancer. It's an epidemic and I feel really strongly that we all have to pull together" to help find a cure.

His goal is to raise $1 million for cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and hospice programs. He's more than halfway through his fundraising goal for the third leg of his journey, thanks to a matching program in which $2 is donated for every $1 he raises.

"I wasn't a fundraiser getting into this," he said, "but someone raised funds to make me a cancer survivor, and I'm really grateful for that. Someone did a walk or a run or a gala or some type of fundraising to raise money to catch my colon cancer early, and my wife's breast cancer early."

He was especially inspired in 2007, when he watched the interviews Ted Koppel conducted with Morrie Schwartz, a sociology professor who was diagnosed with ALS. Lee, a businessman, said Schwartz's story, the subject of the best-selling book, "Tuesdays With Morrie," prompted him to "switch from success to significance."

ALS is a terminal neurological disease, and as it progresses, patients lose muscle control and the use of their limbs and their voices. "I feel fortunate," Lee said, "that I can be their arms and legs and voice."

2001: Cycled 3,300 miles from San Diego to Jacksonville, Fla.2007: Cycled 6,500 miles from Jacksonville, Fla., to Bar Harbor, Maine, then west to Vancouver, British Columbia.2012: Left Vancouver on Sept. 6 with plans to arrive at the U.S. border with Mexico in late October.